![]() Things are hardly back to normal now, but the desire for the next mayor to be a cheerleader in chief has waned. In March and April, when the city was still masked and still reeling from 17,000-plus COVID deaths, his message of hope and optimism and revival was highly welcome. The larger problem, though, is that the campaign’s context changed on Yang. “The Marist poll doesn’t mesh with Andrew’s reception in the street.” “We’re still doing very, very strongly with Asians, Jews, Latinos, and white moderate voters,” says Chris Coffey, one of Yang’s campaign managers. “Over time what you saw was Yang’s white-liberal support collapsed,” the strategist says. Nothing close to a Yang scandal emerged, but the repeated criticisms-Yang had never bothered to vote in a city mayoral election-and the gaps in his knowledge of how city government works-he was stumped by a routine question about the disclosure of police disciplinary records-chipped away at many voters’ willingness to entrust him with City Hall. “The press corps went deep on vetting Yang and not Eric Adams,” a veteran New York Democratic strategist says. The flip side is that Yang’s celebrity, and novelty, inspired a wealth of local media examination. A bid for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination gave Yang enviable name recognition and a massive social media following, which propelled his fast start in the mayoral run. Yang’s opponents, naturally, have long predicted this downward trajectory: Back in March, Ray McGuire told me that Yang’s early lead was merely a “32-ounce sugar rush.” Yet Yang’s appeal wasn’t empty, and his decline hasn’t been inevitable, or simple. After months of being at the head of the field, Yang seems to be fading at the finish. But the impromptu civilian commentary has to sting a bit (though Sammut later says Yang’s graciousness won him over). Maybe thousands of new voters turn out and Yang wins after all. Yang keeps smiling, laughingly tells Sammut that his wife makes the exact same point, and leans in to pose for a photo.
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